Participants in the study who experienced early-morning awakening insomnia had signiﬁcantly advanced body clocks compared to those who were good sleepers.

Professor Lack said, “Evening bright-light therapy was found to be effective in delaying the body clock of individuals with early-morning awakening insomnia and resulting in more sleep and better daytime moods and functioning.”

Wearing Re-Timer for 30-60 minutes in the evening before bed can delay your body clock (or circadian rhythm) helping you to avoid waking up at 3am in the morning.

Here are some tips, if you do find yourself awake at 3am:

Remember that awakenings during the night are a normal part of the sleep period, especially as we get older.

Don’t do anything too stimulating, relax and allow yourself to fall back to sleep.

Don’t stay in bed more than 20 minutes awake, get out of bed and go to another room to do quiet activities in low illumination light.

If you feel sleepy again you can go back to bed to allow yourself to re-initiate sleep.

If, however, you cannot fall back to sleep in about 20 minutes then start your day but avoid bright light for the first few hours.